Organic meal deliveries in L.A.

Find an organic meal delivery service for everyone, from raw vegans to carnivores.

So you’d like local, organic produce bought at the farmers’ market to be diced, sliced and prepped from scratch to create gourmet healthy dishes — but don’t have the time, energy or cooking skills to make that happen. Then I hope you’re living in Los Angeles, because a whole bunch of sustainable meal delivery services have popped up to meet your dining needs in 2009.

Here they are, listed from most to least diet-specific (juice fast deliveries would’ve topped the list, but I didn’t include them because juice doesn’t qualify as a meal in my book). The dollar amount in bold is the cost of 10 meals — or 5 lunches and 5 dinners for your work week — so you’d have some basis for price comparison.

Going raw and vegan in 2009? The people behind Euphoria Loves Rawvolution, a raw food restaurant in Santa Monica, can make it easier for you via The Box. Each box includes 4 entrées, 4 side dishes, 2 soups and 2 desserts — which Rawevolution says is enough for 2 meals for 4-5 days. I remain slightly dubious about this — mainly because after I eat a raw meal, I get hungry like 10 minutes later and need more food…. This may explain why so many serious raw foodies are frightfully thin, however.

Menu items include dishes like Greek Pizza, Spinach & Cheese Quiche and Homemade Apple Crumble — but having dined at Rawvolution, I can guarantee you that none of those will actually taste like their conventional counterparts, because they’ll be, you know, raw.

Delivery: Once a week to the greater LA area. FedEx delivery available throughout the U.S.

Cost: Each box costs $120, which Rawvolution says should feed you 2 meals for 4-5 days. There’s a $10 delivery fee in L.A., though you can either pickup the box yourself for free or get it FedExed for a lot more money.

Each week’s menu includes 5 entrees, 2 soups, and 2 desserts — so if you want both lunch and dinner, you’ll need to make a double order. Kristina says she’s currently reworking the menu a little to try to make larger sizes of less variety and hopefully lower the price a little, so check back in February if the prices are too high for you right now.

Delivery: Once a week to the greater Los Angeles area.

Cost: A week’s order costs $120, but if you want 10 meals, you’ll need to get the double order, priced at $200.

I’ve tried this vegan delivery service — and liked it, for the most part. Vegin’ Out gets much of its produce from the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market; about 75 percent of the ingredients in Vegin’ Out’s trans fat-free meals are certified organic.

Each delivery includes multiple servings of 3 different entrees, 4 side dishes, 1 soup, and 5 cookies — enough for 9-10 meals. The one downside to this is that if you don’t like one of the dishes, you’re stuck with a bunch more of it. On the upside, Vegin’ Out’s super cheap.

Delivery: Once a week to the greater Los Angeles area.

Cost: At $110 for 9-10 meals, this service is a real bargain. DHL shipping in Socal outside the L.A. area costs $15.

If you shun dairy and eggs — but dig sustainable seafood and free-range, hormone-free meat, Clean Plate’s for you. Is there a name for a pro fish and meat but anti eggs and dairy diet?

In any case — Clean Plate Meals’ meals sound more gourmet and upscale — with dishes like stuffed sole with sweet pea puree and topped with a fresh herb gremolata, over jasmin rice — and uses at least 90 percent farm-fresh organic, local, seasonal ingredients. All food’s also wheat and gluten-free and can be veganized upon request.

Delivery: Once a week to West L.A. and surrounding areas.

Cost: A 5-day week of lunches and dinners (10 meals) costs $285 a week ($410 with snacks). Half-week and kid packages are also available.

Order: The web order form doesn’t seem to be working, so call 310.908.4753.

* From here on, the meal delivery services get very meat heavy — the carbon footprint of which has got to be quite considerable, even if everything’s organic, grass fed and free range.

This company’s basically a Zone meal delivery service — with an organic and local bent. (via YDT) Would-be thinner environmentalists can sign up to get 1200-1400 calorie meals (1800 to 2000 for men) delivered to their doorstep every morning.

Dieting doesn’t come cheap though, since the meals at Club Gourmet really do appear to be very gourmet. Menu items include fennel-crusted duck breast, orange-scented natural veal osso bucco and other meaty stuff, so vegetarians should steer clear.

Delivery: Daily to the greater Los Angeles area

Price: 5 lunches and dinners will cost you $50 a day or $250 a week; the “optimum health menu” which also includes breakfast and 2 snacks will set you back $80 a day. Longer package deals are available. The bare minimum you can order is $50 a day, at least 3 times a week.

This personal chef meal delivery service can get you 3 meals plus 2 snacks for all 7 days of the week — delivered six days a week (Sat. and Sun. deliveries arrive together). Paleta boasts about its LEED-certified commercial kitchen featuring local, seasonal, and organic ingredients.

Like Paleta, most of JAM’s main dishes are based around meat. JAM uses local and organic ingredients to make dishes like chicken pot pie and braised short ribs.

JAM boasts a 7-day menu, but only one meal’s created per day. So if you were hoping to get both lunch and dinner delivered, you’ll need to order 2-people’s worth of every dish — and eat the same meal twice each day.

Delivery: Twice a week to the Greater Los Angeles area.

Cost: 10 meals (2-person portions of 5 different meals) costs $208 — plus tax and a $10 delivery charge. If you just want to try out the service, you can order as little as 2 meals for $50. Want all 3 meals plus 2 snacks? That’ll cost $59 a day, or $413 a week.